Individual therapy
A space where you don't have to carry everything alone.
Therapy for anxiety, burnout and the weight of doing well.
Perhaps you're overwhelmed, anxious, or feeling disconnected from yourself. Maybe you're going through a difficult change, questioning a relationship, grieving a loss, or simply realizing that the way you've been coping isn't working as well as it used to.
You might know exactly what you'd like to work on. Or you might just know that something doesn't feel right. Either way, we can start there.
Book a free consultation (opens in a new tab)In short
Individual therapy is regular one-to-one work, usually weekly and fifty minutes long, focused on understanding the patterns driving your anxiety, exhaustion or dissatisfaction, steadying how you feel day to day, and making deliberate changes that hold. Sessions take place online, through Cognizant Psychotherapy.
What working together feels like
You can expect me to listen carefully and take a genuine interest in your experience. I'm not someone who sits silently while you do all the talking. I'll ask questions, reflect on what I'm hearing, and share observations that may help us see things differently.
We can move at your pace. You don't have to talk about something before you're ready, and not every session needs to feel productive or insightful.
What if I've never been to therapy?
It's completely normal to feel nervous or unsure before your first session. You might wonder what you're supposed to say, whether your problems are serious enough, or whether you'll feel comfortable opening up to someone you don't know.
You don't have to prepare anything. I'll help guide our first conversation, and we'll take time to understand what brought you here. You can share as much or as little as feels comfortable, and decide whether working together feels right.
Who this is for
Adults and teens who are used to functioning well and are finding that it is costing more than it used to, or that something important is missing. You may be at the top of your field, in the middle of a degree, newly promoted, newly redundant, or newly aware that the way you have been living is not sustainable.
You do not need to be in crisis to come.
What may bring you in
When your mind won't slow down: anxiety, low mood, perfectionism, burnout and pressure
- Anxiety. Anticipatory worry, rumination, physical tension, difficulty switching off, a sense of constant low-grade emergency.
- Burnout. Depletion that rest does not resolve, cynicism about work you used to care about, dread on Sunday evenings, numbness.
- Perfectionism and over-responsibility. Standards that have stopped being useful, difficulty delegating, guilt at rest, carrying what belongs to other people.
- Depression. Flatness, loss of interest, self-criticism, withdrawal, and the exhaustion of performing normality for everyone else.
- Career and academic pressure. High-stakes decisions, leadership isolation, exit or redundancy, exams and applications, visibility, imposter feelings, the pace never dropping.
When the past still feels present: trauma and distressing experiences
- Trauma. Earlier experience that still intrudes on the present: hypervigilance, avoidance, reactivity that feels out of proportion to now.
When life changes unexpectedly: grief, career transitions, identity changes, relocation and loss
- Identity and life transitions. Relocation, migration, parenthood, divorce, illness, a role ending, success that did not feel the way you expected.
- Grief. Bereavement, and the less recognized losses: a version of yourself, a plan, a relationship, a company, a future you were counting on.
When relationships feel difficult: boundaries, conflict, disconnection and family expectations
- Relationship stress. Conflict, distance, resentment, people-pleasing, difficulty asking for anything, family dynamics that still shape you.
When building a family is painful or complicated: infertility, IVF, pregnancy loss and postpartum
- Perinatal loss and postpartum. Infertility and treatment, miscarriage, stillbirth, postpartum anxiety or depression, and grief that others often treat as smaller than it is.
What we can explore
What the anxiety is protecting you from, and what it costs. Where your standards came from and whether you still agree with them. Where this distress comes from, and what it seems to say about you. How your body holds pressure. What you are grieving. What you actually want, as distinct from what you have been achieving.
Where earlier experience is still driving current reactions, we may use EMDR or trauma-informed approaches, discussed and agreed with you first, and never applied by default.
Common questions about individual therapy
Do I need a diagnosis to start therapy?
No. Most people begin because something is not working, whether that is sleep, mood, a relationship, or their relationship to work, rather than because they have a diagnosis. Part of early sessions is understanding together what is actually going on.
How long does therapy take?
It depends on what you are working on and what you want from it. Some people come for a focused stretch of a few months around a specific decision or transition; others stay longer for deeper work. We review it together rather than leaving it open-ended by default. I do not promise a particular outcome or timeline.
Is this different from coaching?
Yes. Coaching is oriented to goals and performance. Psychotherapy is clinical work: it attends to mental health, history, emotion and meaning, within a professional and ethical framework including assessment, confidentiality and supervision. My business background informs how I listen, and it is not what I am selling.